Yesterday evening my wife and I arrived home to Owasso, Oklahoma, and rushed in to hug our son. We had been gone on a long weekend trip with some friends to celebrate one of their birthdays. We went to Las Vegas.

Being from Oklahoma, we are around gun people a lot. Many of my closest friends are collectors, hunters, preppers…whatever you want to call them. I am all for the 2nd Amendment, as it was intended. It prevents a government controlled state to easily enforce its will upon the people. I get it.

Prior to October 1, 2017, I had always just kind of gone with it. You love guns, that’s cool. I don’t really like them, but don’t have a problem with you liking them. Before October 1, 2017, I was ignorant to the ways that perspective could impact me and my family. Today, I simply don’t understand why any citizen should have access to a tool that can fire 1,000 bullets into a crowd of 22,000 people from 1200 feet away and be lethal.

Fortunately, my wife and I were in bed on the other side of the Las Vegas strip when a terrorist opened fire on the concert goers also in Las Vegas to have a good time. We were awakened by friends and family calling, texting, and messaging us to make sure we were safe. We had no idea what had happened. We were not impacted right?

Wrong. Just being in the same town as that type of incident will change you. And being someone that enjoys being out and about, often in large crowds, and frequently traveling to New York City, where this could happen any day of the week, I’m not sure how I will feel being in that environment now. The mere fact that everyday people have access to tools of warfare impacts us all. Believe me, I understand freedom. But how do we balance freedom, when one person’s right directly jeopardizes another’s opportunity to live? Should the freedom to own guns infringe on the freedom seek happiness? Because that is what is happening right now. Not for everyone, I get that too…but in a society, the actions of a few can impact the many. And the volume of the “many” impacted by the “few”, in this case 1…is out of control.

I had a friend from college post on Facebook asking what level of horror would it take for Americans to realize that gun reform is needed. She is from Bangladesh, and now lives in London. There is no intelligent answer for this question. Intelligence is not driving the bus we are all riding on. Fear and anger are driving. We have got to stop, get out, and find a new ride.

PS – This is my blog, your opinions are not of my concern right now, please keep your comments to yourself. My perspective has changed. I hope you don’t have to come close to tragedy for yours to shift.